What do you do...

...when one student in your developmental comp course complains after class that the other students are "young and immature and disruptive, and they don't take learning seriously, and I can't concentrate because of them" ?

And in your mind, those "young" students are indeed loud and rambunctious sometimes. In fact, they're probably the rowdiest group you've ever had. But they're also playful and energetic and (usually) pretty engaged.

Here's what I did:

I started the next class by asking them to write a kind of mid-term course evaluation. They had to answer these questions:

• What's going well in this class as a whole?
• What could be improved about this class as a whole?
• What are you personally doing well on in this class?
• What could you personally improve on in this class?

I typed up all the answers to the first two questions. Many of the answers had to do with course content (assignments, the pace of the course, etc.). But some of the students did comment on class dynamics. For instance:

• I think the class gets along very well. We have fun while we are learning.
• I think what’s going well so far in the class is how well everybody gets along. Everyone seems to like each other.
• What's going well is that the class is getting along with each other. We like to work together.
• In this class everyone participates very well in everything.

While other students said:

• The class needs to be more respectful to others who are trying to learn. Too much talking and playing, not serious about what they’re doing.
• What can be improved is the behavior of the other students, the consideration of others who come to learn, the respect for others.
• The classmates need to learn to respect each other and be quiet while you’re talking. The immatureness of some of the students can be distracting sometimes.

Okay, there's definitely something going on.

So tomorrow I'm taking in the typed-up comments so we can discuss them. Wish me luck.